Privately, Henris agreed with Houk about the prospects of sleeping outdoors, however, he also knew that opinion appeared to be the minority. "Well, if we're going to stay out here for the night, we might as well get a bit more scouting in while there's still light. Shall we nose our way down this game trail, or cross the bridge?"
he valley walls close in as the group heads north, following the track by the river as it meanders lazily into the woods. The valley seems to be forming into some sort of canyon, the rough granite cliff faces dotted here and there with hardy ferns and stunted saplings that cling tenaciously to the rock.
The narrow cliffs make these woods even more gloomy than before - the trees do not grow quite so densely, moss and fungi cling to their trunks, and the green undergrowth is replaced in many places by thick tangles of thorn bushes and dry, crackling bushes.
There is an eerie quiet, broken only by the chuckling of the water, and then, slowly emerging, a faint tapping or clinking sound. As the group rounds a bend, they come upon a large, obviously dead tree standing on its own in a clearing. Hundreds of skulls of small birds, rodents and other creatures have been strung from the bare branches of this tree by leather thongs. It is these strange totems, clinking against each other in the breeze, that creates this sound.
Houk looks around for possible ambush.. "Umm does anyone else have a bad feeling about this?." he also takes out a standard starknife
"Interesting." mutters Minah, looking around the area for any danger. Telling Sasha to stay put, she will look for tracks around and into the area surrounding the tree.
The ground underneath the dead tree is dry and littered with twigs and leaves, giving little scope for tracks. Certainly there have been many feet around this area, but Minah can't find any details.
What she does find, on the other side of the tree, carved into its bark at about waist height, is a strange sigil, a circle with two smaller circles within.
MInah scopes the area, but can't make out who, or what, is about. She turns her head to the rest of the group, pointing out the symbol.
"Area looks clear to me and I'm not sure what hung these fetishes, but take a look at this carving." she says, pointing to the symbol carved into the dead tree. "Mean anything to any of you?"
Henris takes a look at the sigil. "I can't say that I've ever encountered the like. Perhaps someone back at the keep will be able to identify it."
Henris makes a sketch of the sigil in his journal.
Orono shakes her head. "No. But probably not goblinoids, given how much they hate writing," she says.
"Creepy." Roscoe looks around the tree and clearing.
"This may not be the safest campsite."
The road crosses the bridge,and then turns south. The game trail heads north.
You can't see any obvious connection.
Margût taps one of the dangling skulls with the tip of his sword, sniffing the air and glancing around suspiciously.
"I advise we keep going, nothing here at the moment."
If no one objects, Houk keeps following the path
"Can't say I seen that afore. Least I don't recall so. As for goin' on...aye, maybe a little ways further. I'm agreein' with Roscoe though. This is lookin' more an' more like somewhere I don't want to be sleepin' near."
"I concur. If we are going to press on, let us do so."
The path descends further into the gorge, alongside the river that is picking up speed now as it foams and pours over large boulders and small cataracts. In the gloom, the stunted and withered trees seem to shift and crawl, their branches reaching out to grasp. A carpet of dead leaves crunches underfoot.
Minah, kicking her way through the leaves, happens to glance up and catches sight of a fleeing figure darting through the trees - a humanoid about the size of a halfling, with a large oval head and a mouth full of sharp teeth.
Minah, seeing the creature, motions to Sasha to follow her and gives a hand signal to the others to look. She and the lion then give pursuit if it's close enough. If not, she will hang back and look to see if there are more about or if any tracks were left to see where it might be headed.
Minah quickly identifies the place where the creature was hiding - a small scraped out hollow behind a tree. There is little there, except some crude carvings, doodles almost, in the bark of the tree, and what appears to be a half-cheweed pickled pig's trotter.
Minah sends Sasha after the creature with a word and the powerful cat bounds through the forest after it.
Sasha is too slow however and after a few more quick dashes, makes her way back to the tree where Minah is standing. With a quick, disappointed growl, she rubs up against Minah's legs. Minah reaches down, pats the lion's side and shows her the place where the little creature was hiding. Letting the lion get the scent, she turns to the others. "Sasha has the beast's scent. Let's follow to see where it's off to."
With that, Minah and Sasha begin to track the creature.
The creature appears to have had its escape route planned out, as the scent trail leads directly into a dense, thorny thicket, away from the path. The crawlways through the thicket are impassable for anything larger than a halfling, and even Sasha has to crawl and wriggle, emerging with a scratched nose and a coat covered in burrs.
But then the scent trail returns to the main trail, heading almost exactly north.
The path becomes fainter and then fails entirely, as the ground underneath grows harder, and the soft leaf mould is replaced by a carpet of twisting tree roots and sharp flint boulders that catch at the toes and then turn suddenly, threatening to sprain ankles. Going is slow, and the sun is beginning to near the horizon, casting long shadows through the increasingly sparse trees.
Orono and Minah hear it at almost the same moment - a strange, rhythmic creaking noise coming from the east, a few dozen feet from the path. It sounds almost like a loose shutter swinging in the wind, or someone on a creaky rocking chair.
Minah stops and motions to the party to listen eastward. Once everyone has a bead on the sound, she will draw her club and see if Roscoe is interested in sneaking over to see what the noise is coming from.
"The little creature headed north along the path here. With night approaching, I think we should soon find a spot to shelter and let Blaughter get started on his stew. However, maybe if we follow the trail for a bit longer, we can find out if there is a hideout or lair of some sort. What say you?"
"Best to make sure we're not camping just down the road from an enemy," says Orono pragmatically. "Let's see what we can find." She stows her bow and draws her sword.
"I concur. Best not to have any creatures sneaking up on us in the middle of the night."
"I say not... unless we are willing to step into it's most likely trapped or well defended lair, as otherwise we can't catch it, it chooses the engagement.. definitely not a good situation to be going into. We're better off making it come to us, plus it didn't attack us initially."
Roscoe looks at the others, "We've been seen by a scout. We should assume we are followed and watched perhaps even now. We should find a spot easy to defend, rather than a comfy night."
"I'm gonna side with Ros an' Houk on this'n. I think I'd like that bridge between us an' that little bugger an'is friends."
Margût grunts in agreement with Blaughter, finding no flaw in Houk and Rocoe's reasoning.
"Reconnaissance is most effective when the enemy isn't at high alert," he says, using more words than he is usually comfortable with.
The creaking noise contines to the east.
Minah is convinced she heard some branches snapping in that direction too, but no-one else heard it.
Orono's pet spider begins to squirm agitatedly in her backpack.
"Well, since the majority of the group seems to feel we should find a defensible location for the night, I suppose that is how we shall do it. I do suggest we post watches, though, to watch for any attacks from unsightly creatures."
Minah starts to speak again, then gets quiet momentarily as she hears the branches snap. "Something's over there." she says, pointing eastward. "Something's moving."
"Maybe another scout..." she says as she walks cautiously that way with Sasha at her side.
Orono removes her spider, makes an odd clicking sound while snapping her fingers twice , and stalks quietly over in the direction that Minah is heading.
Briella does not want to go in that direction. She scuttles into hollow in a nearby tree and presses herself flat.
There is something, or rather several somethings, moving in the trees to the east. Coming closer.
Houk, Orono nd Minah can take a single move or standard action before we go into initiative.
Minah, seeing the spiders, gives Sasha the defend command and begins casting Summon Nature's Ally I.
"Oh! Spiders!" says Orono.
She makes an odd chattering noise, almost like a cat that has something stuck in its throat and is coughing.
The spiders pause momentarily as Orono makes her soothing noises,but her spider-wrangling skills are not enough to overcome their hunger after a lean winter. They press forward.
"Bad spider!"
Roscoe readies his sling, "Are they with you spider lady. Please tell me there with you."
"Nope. Hungry." She raises her buckler and backsword.
Rotation:
Blaughter - can post
Spider3
Henris - can post
Spider2
Houk
Spider4
Margut
Oronos
Minah
Spider1
Roscoe
Taking out his crossbow, Henris says, "Perhaps we should have skipped this trail, after all..."
He then says magic words, making his crossbow glow.
Roscoe asks "Do spider webs burn like cobwebs."
"More bloody spiders..." The fat priest hisses under his breath as he hefts his spear and moves up to defend himself and his companions.
Not sure how you'd like to handle AoOs GM. I'll be online a bit today to check on the game, so I can roll them if they happen...or if you'd rather roll them as they come up that works too. Blaughter is at +5 to hit, and does d8+6 for damage currently
Blaugter's tactical positioning pays off - the spider sees him as easy prey, and charges straight for him. His spear set firmly, the priest thrusts once...twice...at the creature's bloated abdomen.
The longspear skewers the creature, which lets out a high pitched half-shriek, half-wail, shudders, and drops to the ground, its legs curling about its body.
Another of the spiders scuttles forward, instinctively attracted to Orono by her attempts at communication.
Rotation:
Blaughter
Spider3
Henris - can post
Spider2 (dead)
Houk - can post
Spider4
Margut
Oronos
Minah
Spider1
Roscoe
Sorry, that's
Blaughter
Spider3
Henris
Spider2 (dead)
Houk - can post
Spider4
Margut - can post
Oronos
Minah
Spider1
Roscoe